Turkeys which are brought up in fowl hatching establishments, when having reached a certain size and weight, are transported in cages to slaughtering and meat processing plants. Customarily three tiers of cages are stacked on the platform of a lorry. The cages have sidewardly opening doors. The lorry with the cages thereon is driven to a point opposite the exit from the turkey run, the birds are retrieved therefrom manually and are--one at a time--introduced into the cages. Each cage is destined to hold a number of birds. It will be realised that the operation of loading a multitude of birds onto a lorry, using the method referred to above, is not only time consuming but hard work (in view of the size and weight of the birds) which requires participation of several workers.